The death of Ekaterina Maximova was the end of a whole era in ballet world, the end of Katya and Volodya, and it had been coming since the retirement of Bolshoi´s greatest dancers. We remember Lavrovsky´s Basilio variation with eight or nine perfect pirouettes and the audience in complete excitement, and others who were pupils of Asaf Messerer, such as Timofeeva, Semenyaka, Gordeev, Liepa and of course Plisetskaya. That golden time.
These days we do not see dance like that, we see lots of improvement and new challenges in the technique department, but sadly, many soloists and even principals who do not show what ballet is really about. It is not about tricks and contortion, it is about art, love, death, tragedy and joy. It is about mastering the technique so much that it is not an issue anymore, it becomes just not the main deal. A jewel from the Bolshoi still shines, Nadezhda Gracheva, who still shows what the old school taught, artistry and emotions that travel with no problem to the audience. But today we can enjoy again of a couple that has the world talking about them, we can again see super speed turns in Osipova, we see both of them fly and as they grow older they are getting that thing of experience where she masters each rol. Vasiliev, as some say, is a true genius, spectacular and gifted, even when his body type is not the ideal for the task in Russian standards, still he is the new virtuoso, better than some others with the long legs, and people absolutely love him. With their debut in La Bayadere and their promotion in 2010, they officially became the new couple for the ballet audience as they travel around the world. So in the next ten years these two will just keep getting better so there is still lots to wait of the Bolshoi young couple.
